Taming Femi

Chapter Two

The stress simply refused to end!

I have already yelled at two people today and it's still morning. All the energy i woke up with has been sucked out of me. I am in the middle of an event planners worse nightmare.

Mrs Obebi, the brides mother called out of nowhere some minutes after 8. For some reason she decided she wanted to come down and see the reception hall. I didn't see a problem with that. I was even excited to show her the work we'd done but to my greatest horror, barely two minutes into the tour of the hall, she announced that she did not like the hall and wanted to change it to a bigger one with and I quote in her exact words, "More ACs. "

THIS HALL HAD 8 ACs!!!!

That wasn't all. She also didn't like the decoration and wanted it redone, nitpicking every little thing down to how the seat covers were placed on the seats. The plate setup at the VIP tables. Little things that according to her were very important.

"I should have hired someone from Lagos or Abuja or even flown someone into the country. At least they would know how to handle an event as prestigious as this." She said it like as though she was speaking to herself but I knew she meant for me to hear her.

I know as well as she that I'd never have gotten her as a client if not because of the referral from her son-in-law to be. One of Ohi's toasters was friends with him and she had pressured him into referring me to the groom who referred me to his mother-in-law to be. I knew I had been given a big shot at publicity and I worked so hard to get it right! So hard to get every little detail down to perfection and now this.

I feel like screaming. Who changes the venue for an event less than 24 hours to the actual event? Who does that? It was virtually impossible to do. Not only would I have to reprint and resend the new invitations with the new address on it, I would have to tell the decorators to pull down the decor that was up and move it to the new hall. Not only that, I haven't even seen this new hall, I don't have a floor plan for the new hall. There's no way I'm gonna come up with a new floor plan in less than 24 hours without consulting the bride and groom. And the bride, oh! The poor bride was on a day out with her friends prepping for the bachelorette party later in the evening.

I tried explaining all this to Mrs Obebi in a tone as cool and as rational as possible but it seemed like my village people had possesed her. The woman refused to hear common sense. I would have ignored her, honestly. Afterall, she's not the one getting married. But she's the one paying me and she'd already made it clear that i could forget my balance if I didn't do what she wanted.

As soon as she left, I got my mom on the phone and explained the situation to her. I fully expected her to know what to do, afterall, she'd been in this business longer than I have. But her response was useless to me.

"I don't know why you keep chasing after these big men. I've told you before, leave them and focus on middle class people like yourself! They're much easier to deal with but no, you're ambitious. You want to make a name for yourself, you want more money. You want this, you want that. I want grand children but clearly that's not your problem." She hissed over the phone.

I'm too worked up for this. Too worked up for this right now. "I don't know why I called you but that's okay, I'll figure this out myself." I was about to drop the call but I couldn't stop myself from adding a final touch. "I'm getting paid N1.8 million for this event. That's my take home payment for this event. Over 10 million has crossed my account since i started working on this project. 10 million Naira. I was going to send you 500 thousand after the wedding but I won't. I'll use the money to take a vacation after this. Lord knows i need it!" I drop the call before she can respond.

Two hours later, I call Mrs Abebi and sternly but gently inform her that we cannot change halls but this time, I resort to using her daughter as a bargaining chip. I inform her how much her daughter loves the hall and the sentiment attached to her choosing the hall and then I relay all the other reasons why it was impossible to change halls less than 24 hours to D-Day. MIRACULOUSLY, she agrees! But orders me to send her new pictures of the hall after we fixed the "nonsense" we'd done inside. I promised her to do just that.

Walking over to discuss the new changes with Yola, the head of my decorating team, I thank God that this whole thing would be over in less than 24 hours.

Later that night, standing in front of the full length mirror in Ohi's room, wearing the beautiful corset A-Line gown that she made specially for this occasion, I'm like, "It's sad sha, that I'm not going man hunting in what has to be the biggest wedding that Benin city will see in a longgggg longgggg time!"

Izi and Efe laugh, while Ohi looked at me in mock horror.

"Wait o! You mean i designed and sewed this beautiful dress for you and a man isn't going to help you take if off at the end of wedding???"

"Na wa for you o! Is she the one getting married?" Izi asked, giving her a nasty look.

Ohi smiles and raises her eyebrow suggestively. "With the way i sewed this dress ehn! If she doesn't come home with several new toasters ehn, change my name!"

I laugh and give the dress a little twirl. Ohi better be ready to go and swear a name change affidavit because as a rule of conduct, I never mingle with event guests more than for professional purposes. It had always been that way and nothing was about to change that.

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Ahem... Dear experienced readers, i think we all know what's about to go down 😏😏

Also, what do you think about Omote's relationship with her mom?

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